As part of LACMA’s tribute to Ed Ruscha at their Art+Film gala this year (the artist also has an exhibition on view), filmmaker Lance Acord created a short film entitled “Ed Ruscha, Woody, and the World’s Hottest Pepper”, produced by Park Pictures and LACMA.  Watch the film via LACMA

David Hockney’s foundation now holds £84 million in assets. The art is expected to eventually be gifted to museums in the two regions where Hockney resides – the Tate and The Los Angeles County Museum of Art. (more…)

Museum galas in Los Angeles continue to feature celebrities to bolster fund raising: The Hammer Museum has invited Katy Perry, Steve Martin and MSNBC personality Rachel Maddow to its gala on Oct. 6th. The Hammer fundraiser will honor artists Barbara Kruger and Cindy Sherman and it will be co-chaired by Anthony and Jeanne Pritzker. Individual seats range from $1,500 to $7,500; last year’s gala raised approximately $1.7 million. Additionally, The Los Angeles County Museum of Art gala takes place on Oct. 27th, honoring filmaker Stanley Kubrick and artist Ed Ruscha, with Steven Spielberg presenting and music by Florence and the Machine. The Museum of Contemporary Art has postponed its gala until the spring. (more…)

British band Florence and the Machine will headline the second Art + Film Gala hosted by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, a stark contrast from last year’s choice of Stevie Wonder. The annual event, to be co-chaired by Leonardi Di Caprio and museum trustee Eva Chow on October 27, was conceived by the Museum to raise the profile of film and raised $3 million in 2011.

(more…)

Michael Heizer‘s “Levitated Mass” opens to the public at LACMA. The 340-ton boulder suspends just above a channel, allowing visitors to walk under the sculpture and see it from multiple angles. The reclusive artist poses the question: “When do you get to see the bottoms of sculptures?”

(more…)

‪‬Video: ‘A Brief History of John Baldessari‘ commissioned by LACMA for their first annual “Art + Film Gala” and narrated by Tom Waits spans the artist’s entire oeuvre, as well as his daily life in the studio, including his internet password and dog, Giotto

(more…)

–>
View of frame to have picture taken with boulder in Bixby Knolls on March 7, 2012. Images on site for Art Observed by Megan Hoetger.

On Saturday, March 10 at approximately 3:00 am the 340-ton granite megalith that will be part of Michael Heizer’s Levitated Mass reached its final destination at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). Traveling for eleven days in the dead of night through Riverside, San Bernardino, Orange, and Los Angeles Counties, the rock arrived at LACMA to a crowd of a thousand onlookers. The megalith’s final resting place is atop a 465-foot long slot carved into the earth. Viewers will be able to walk down into the slot and underneath the rock, experiencing scale in a way that harkens back to ancient times when massive structures such as Stonehenge, Easter Island, or the Great Pyramids were constructed.

–>
View of boulder in Exposition Park area on March 9, 2012

(more…)

‪‬Artist Michael Heizer’s 340-ton boulder is the centerpiece for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s “Levitated Mass” exhibition. It traveled through Ontario California on Thursday in a special truck for the second stop of its 105-mile journey from Riverside to LACMA. Street signs and obstacles were moved for its journey. [AO Newslink]

(more…)

Vja Celmin’s show at LACMA discusses a part of her life that often goes overlooked-  her time as an young artist. For over three years, Celmins lived in a small studio in Venice Beach, California and though she is known for fairly serene subject matter, Celmins’ installation within LACMA showcases her preoccupation with more violent topics during this period in her life. These paintings emphasize  crashing war planes,  handguns and images of death and destruction.  Though the images are violent in nature,  they are tinged with Celmin’s own personal history and attention to the medium.

More text and images after the jump…

(more…)

John Baldessari, What was Seen, via Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Currently on view at Los Angeles County Museum of Art is “Pure Beauty,” a retrospective of work by John Baldessari. The exhibition features one hundred and fifty objects produced by one of the most influential living American artists, representing over five decades of his storied career. The show is curated by LACMA’s Leslie Jones, with Jessica Morgan, curator of Contemporary Art at the Tate Modern.

(more…)

A photograph of Joseph Beuys’s Action Piece presented as part of seven exhibitions held at the Tate Gallery from 24 February- 23 March 1972, via The Telegraph

I’m interested in the distribution of physical vehicles in the form of editions because I’m interested in spreading ideas. – Joseph Beuys (1970)

Currently on view at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art is Joseph Beuys: The Multiples, the first west coast presentation of The Broad Art Foundation’s nearly 600 Beuys works produced between 1968 and 1986. The works are displayed on the third floor of the Broad Contemporary Art Museum (BCAM) part of the ongoing loan program the foundation established with LACMA in 2008.

(more…)

Three Color Curl (CMY: Irvine, California, August 24th, 2008, Fuji Crystal Archive Type C). 2008. Walead Beshty via MOMA

A vanguard showcase of contemporary photographers – Walead Beshty , Daniel Gordon, Sara VanDerBeek, Carter Mull, Leslie Hewitt, Sterling Ruby – is currently on view at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. An annual program that aims to bring cutting-edge artists to the attention of novelty-craving public has acquired a new thematic dimension. As the Associate Curator and the organizer of New Photography 2009, Eva Respini observes that this year’s select artists come from varied backgrounds and most “actively work in other disciplines” and draw inspiration from “drawing, sculpture, video, and installation.” The exhibit runs through January 11, 2010.

Related links:
New Photography 2009 Press Release [MOMA]
Pictures Generation Roundtable: After Materiality and Style [Art in America]
Artists that Push the Boundaries of Photography [PDN Pulse]
Tate Triennial 2009 [Frieze Magazine]
Who is Sterling Ruby? [Frieze Magazine]
Words Without Pictures Review [ArtForum]
Art in Review: Leslie Hewitt [NY Times]
The Whitney Biennial 2008: About the Artist – Leslie Hewitt [The Whitney]
Daniel Gordon [ArtForum]
Sara VanDerBeek Review [ArtReview]
Marc Foxx Gallery: Carter Mull

Artist profiles and more images after the jump…
(more…)

Judith Supine, Above the City in a Summer Night Dream via Wooster Collective

Judith Supine installs his “Above the City in a Summer Night Dream” on top of the Williamsburg Bridge in New York [Wooster Collective]
Ryan McGinley writes on Dash Snow in Vice Magazine [Vice via Art Fag City]
India’s contemporary art “superstar,” Subodh Gupta, before his first UK solo show at Hauser & Wirth, speaks of his Western influences [Financial Times]
In related, The Economist discusses the state of Indian Contemporary art with a summary of the International Art Fair in Delhi [Economist]

Julien Fronsacq (Palais de Tokyo, Paris), Olivier Sailliard (Musée de la Mode et du Textile, Paris),and Hans Ulrich Obrist (Serpentine Gallery, London) model for Yohji Yamamoto’s Y, via ArtJetSet

The spring lookbook for Yohji Yamamoto’s Y features curators as models [ArtJetSet]
Gagosian Gallery sues Lufthansa and Art Crate Inc. over the destruction of a 1969 Brice Marden painting worth $3 million [NY Times]
Russian artist, Presniakov, to sue Hilton heiress for failing to pay $10 million for his artwork [Reuters]
Meanwhile a Moscow dealer sues Luhring Augustine over George Condo paintings [Bloomberg]
Graffiti charges against Yoshitomo Nara dropped after 6 months of proper behavior [Artforum]
The Norton Simon Museum’s ‘Adam’ and ‘Eve’ become the center of a legal battle after an heir to the work claims the paintings were looted by the Nazis [LA Times]

Gavin Turk’s ‘Brillo 5’ a bronze sculpture of a cardboard box for sale via Christie’s

Christie’s announces its First Open Sale of Post-War and Contemporary Art, scheduled for September 23rd [Artdaily]
LA art gallery Blum and Poe expands its gallery into a new space launching October 2 in related both Sotheby’s and Christie’s downsize their LA operations [Lindsay Pollock]
Christie’s converts an icon Brooklyn warehouse into a rigorously guarded storage space [The New York Times]
With 372,000 visitors, the Frank Lloyd Wright exhibit was the most attended show in the Guggenheim Museum’s history [NY Times]
In related, Banksy’s guerilla Bristol Museum show reaches over 300,000 visitors [Guardian]

Posters for the New York Minute exhibition at Macro in Rome via OHWOW

An interview with Charles Saatchi, who is releasing a book on September 8th detailing his experiences as an art collector [Guardian]
Daniel Richter leads a protest against the demolition of artist studio and gallery space in Hamburg [Artinfo]
Moscow International Biennale for Young Art- an ambitious art initiative announces call for applications [Art Daily]
AMR- a new index by analysts for tracking prices aimed solely on post-war art is created [Financial Times]
The Scotsman Steps built in 1899 will become a panel for famous contemporary artist- Martin Creed’s installation [News Scotsman via ArtInfo]
A painting uncovered in Iraq is picked up by the media as a Picasso but is likely inauthentic [ArtMarketMonitor]

Pipilotti Rist via Panache

The Gucci Group award, previously awarded to artists including Steve McQueen and Julian Schnabel, has announced its 4 nominees, among which is artist Pipilotti Rist [Vogue]
This year’s Frieze Music Presentation will be a performance choreographed by artist Martin Creed [Frieze]
In response to LACMA’s decision to end its long standing weekend film program, two outside organizations step in with $150,000 pledge in an attempt to save it [Los Angeles Times]

Skewville wooden sneakers via C-Monster

The ubiquitous Skewville wooden sneakers have online documentation [Skewville via C-Monster]
The latest V magazine profiles 6 projects presented at the 53d Venice Biennale, including those by Tauba Auerbach, Aurel Schmidt, Dan Colen and the late Dash Snow [V magazine]
Art exhibitions to see this fall as suggested by New York art critic Jerry Saltz [Artnet]
The values of art related financial indexes increase as the market is possibly recovering [ArtInfo]
Townhouses restored and owned by photographer Annie Leibovitz could potentially cure her $24 million loan obligations to Art Capital Market [Bloomberg]

Nils Folke installation via Phillips De Pury

Phillips De Pury & Co installs sculptures by Nils Folke in its windows to be viewed from High Line park in New York [Phillips De Pury]
Newly created Arts Editor role at the BBC News is being assumed by Will Gompertz who is the current Director of Tate Media at the Tate [BBC]
This year’s Vanity Fair 100 includes art world figures Bernard Arnault (#10), François-Henri Pinault (#20), Miuccia Prada (#40) and Jean Pigozzi (#74) [Vanity Fair]
Ed Ruscha will receive the Artistic Excellence Award from the National Arts Awards on October 5, 2009 [Americans For The Arts]
The Guardian investigates the art scene in Moscow complete with the listing new exhibition spaces [Guardian]

–>
Gilbert and George’s ‘Hoi Polloi,’ part of their exhibition ‘Jack Freak Pictures’ via Arndt & Partner

Gilbert and George speak about friendlessness, bigotry in the art world, and their latest exhibition, ‘Jack Freak Pictures,’ opening in London at White Cube next week [Guardian]
–>
Damien Hirst turns down the Royal Academy’s offer to become a Royal Academician [Artdaily]
–>
Thief sentenced to two and half years in Oslo for the 2004 Munch ‘Scream’ Heist [NY Times]
–>
Haunch of Venison will close its Zürich gallery by 2010 [ArtNewspaper]
–>
After concerted effort by Eli Broad, MOCA announces that its financial troubles are over with a number of new gifts and trustees [LA Times] and LACMA also announces new trustees, including Dasha Zhukova, founder of Moscow’s Garage Centre [LA Times]
–>
The Metropolitan Museum of Art responds to economic crisis, cuts 357 positions [Crain’s]

–>
Titian’s ‘Triumph of Love’ via Artdaily

Director of Tate Britain Stephen Deuchar is appointed director of Art Fund [ArtReview] in related, the Tate Britain recently bought and secured for Britain Titian’s Triumph of Love [Artdaily] and, finally the Art Fund launched an “Art Saved” resource online [Art Knowledge News]
–>
At least 24 New York galleries have closed since the economic collapse, with a number closing for the summer [Artnet]
–>
Connoisseurs are buying increasingly rare Impressionist and Modern masterpieces [NYTimes]
–>
Why auctions may not be the best method for museums’ deaccessioning [Wall Street Journal]
–>

–>
Cai Guo-Qiang and Shen Wei speaking Lincoln Center via WSJ

Choreographer Shen Wei and artist Cai Guo-Qiang discuss their role in the 2008 Beijing Olympics opening ceremonies and how changing attitudes in China have affected their work [Wall Street Journal]
–>
ArtTactic’s Art Market Confidence Indicator shows increased confidence in the contemporary art market, with 2/3 of those survey predicting a rebound by 2011 [ArtTactic via The Art Collectors] and more cautious indicators of a rebound [Artnet]

–>
Ji Lee’s ‘Duchamp Reloaded’ via Wooster Collective

Duchampian street sculpture in front of MoMA [Wooster Collective]
–>
Bravo’s art reality show holds open calls and Paddy Johnson speaks with the casting director [Art Fag City]
–>
A work painted in 1623-24 by a fellow scholar depicts Rembrandt at 16 [TheIndependent]
–>
The Pietzch Collection, which includes many rare surrealist art works, opens to public display in Berlin [Monsters and Critics via Art Market Monitor]
–>

–>
Adam Kimmel stands in front of a photo of Dan Colen as the Marlboro Man via Purple

Riffing on Richard Prince, fashion designer Adam Kimmel has Dan Colen as the Marlboro Man in a series of photos by the creator of the original ads, Jim Krantz [Purple]
–>
A look at what the latest auctions in London could mean for the outlook of the art market [Financial Times]
–>
How London’s proximity to emerging market art buyers from Middle East, Russia and Asia may now have negative effect [Wall Street Journal]

–>
Rachel Wardell, the first participant in Antony Gormley’s ‘One and Other’ via The GuardianUK

The first participants are announced in Antony Gormley’s ‘One and Other’ on the fourth plinth in Traflagar Square [Guardian]
–>
More Intelligent Life investigates the increased interest in Picasso’s late musketeer paintings and finds links between the artist’s pacifism, the mood of the 1960s and younger collectors today [Economist]

–>
A vandalized Banksy mural in Bristol via Bristol Evening Post

A popular Banksy mural in Bristol is vandalized as the Bristol Museum currently holds a major exhibition of the grafitti artist’s work [Bristol Evening Post via Arts Journal]
–>
Jeff Koons describes Michael Jackson as a “contemporary Christ figure” [Bloomberg]
–>
and Koons is now collaborating with watchmaker Ikepod to make a titanium watch [Newsweek]

–>
Terence Koh in his studio via Whitewall

Terence Koh in his all white studio in New York [Whitewall]
–>
Critic Jerry Saltz initiates a discussion with MoMA Chief Curator Ann Tempkin over the museum’s lack of female artists through Facebook [Edward Winkleman]
–>
A Holocaust conference including 46 nations urges more efforts to restitute art stolen by Nazis [Bloomberg]
–>

Spanning from early interactive work from the 1970s to more recent large installations, LACMA’s retrospective exhibition on Austrian artist Franz West is his most comprehensive in the United States so far.  The exhibition, organized by The Baltimore Museum of Art, explores West’s history and position and highlights West’s critical contributions to post-1965 art.  West expanded the definition of sculpture as an environmental and social experience and “continues to do so today,” according to Michael Govan, LACMA CEO.  His work with furniture, found materials, papier-mâché has infused his work with a unique European character.  Informed by philosophers Freud and Wittgenstein, West brings together the aesthetics of trash art and painterly abstraction in prosthetic and biomorphic forms.  West’s collages, installations, sculptures and furniture can be experienced in over a hundred objects at LACMA, through June 7th, 2009.

Franz West, To Build a House You Start with the Roof: Work, 1972 – 2008
–>
Los Angeles County Museum
–>
5905 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles
–>
March 12, 2009 – June 7, 2009

RELATED LINKS
–>
Exhibition Page [LACMA]
–>
Press Release [LACMA]
–>
An Interview with Franz West [LACMA]
–>
LACMA Presents West Coast Premier of First Comprehensive Franz West Survey in U.S. [Artdaily]
–>
Franz West @ LACMA [TRYHARDER]
–>
Review: Franz West at LACMA [Los Angeles Times]
–>
Franz West arrives at LACMA [Artsjournal]
–>
Franz West Installation [Vimeo]

(more…)

BMW Art Car designed by Frank Stella

First commissioned by the company and racecar driver Herve Poulain in 1975 and completed by the likes of Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg, Roy Lichtenstein, and Alexander Calder, BMW’s art cars have toured the world and featured in exhibitions in the most renowned museums and public spaces worldwide. The Los Angeles County Museum of Art currently hosting four of the sixteen cars as an installation through February 25th, including Warhol’s Black and White Disaster, Stella’s Getty Tomb, Lichtenstein’s Cold Shoulder, and Rauschenberg’s print, Booster.

They will be on display as an installation at the BP Grand Entrance, an admission-free area, and will also feature rare, behind-the-scenes footage of Frank Stella and Robert Rauschenberg discussing their inspirations and influences in creating their cars, Warhol building his car, and Herve Poulain, the racer and initiator of the Art Car Project.

Poulain first approached BMW in 1975 with the idea of using his car as a canvas. A few months later, the race car driver and BMW commissioned Alexander Calder to create the first car. The most recent cars were done by David Hockney, Jenny Holzer, and Oliafur Eliasson, with a seventeenth under consideration by the German carmaker. The company uses a panel of prestigious judges culled from all over the art world to select the artists who will conceive and paint the cars.

Following their stint in Los Angeles, the Art Cars will be on display in New York at Grand Central station starting March 24th, and will continue to make pit stops through 2010.

BMW Art Cars [LACMA]
Four wheel art appreciation [W Magazine]
Art that moves [Telegraph UK]
BMWs and Beyond [ArtInfo]
LACMA Hosts Four BMW Art Cars by Warhol, Stella, Lichtenstein, and Rauschenberg [ArtDaily]
Snippets of footage of the artists creating and discussing the cars [MetaCafe]

(more…)

–>
Eli Broad, Billionaire Philanthropist and Art Collector, via LA Times

In an apparent reversal from his statements earlier this year, billionaire philanthropist and patron of the arts Eli Broad is now opening a 25,000 square foot museum in the new headquarters for his eponymous foundation, the Broad Art Foundation.  This news comes just nine months after the Los Angeles County Museum of Art opened the 60,000 square foot Broad Contemporary Art Museum, built through $56 million dollars provided by Mr. Broad, proprietor of a 2,000 piece collection of post-war art.  Jean Michel Basquiat, Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, and Damien Hirst figure among the many seminal artists whose works are owned by the foundation.  Eli Broad had been outspokenly calling the art market bubble for some time now and recent auction performance in the past month or two has proved him to be somewhat prescient.   Broad has felt that the market is returning to normal levels perhaps as he has recently been reinvigorating purchasing activity.  Mr. Broad’s most recent acquisitions include: Bantam by Robert Rauschenberg ($2.6 million), Wishing Well by Jeff Koons ($2.2 million), and Desire by Ed Ruscha ($2.4 million), all acquired at Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Evening Sale on November 11th (as covered by AO here).

The new facility would include the proposed museum, administrative headquarters for his organization, and storage for the pieces of his collection that aren’t on loan to museums. “We want a new headquarters, a space to have works that are not on loan to others at any given moment available for study by curators and scholars,” the foundation’s spokeswoman said in an article published in Bloomberg.  Broad has expressed that he would like the new headquarters to open within 3 years.

Gensler has been designated as the architect and consultant on the project, with a site in Beverly Hills and two other undisclosed locations under review. The Beverly Hills location would be at the corner of Wilshire and Santa Monica Boulevards, a few miles away from the LACMA museum that bears his name. Some observers question whether the new museum would introduce too much competition to existing contemporary arts venues, especially the Broad Museum at LACMA and the Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA), where Broad was a founding trustee. MoCA especially is in a very fragile position: the museum is in a severe fiscal crisis after suffering huge losses to its endowment in the recent market downturn.  Broad has announced a plan to provide $30 million to MoCA over several years to help keep the museum from closing.

The Broad Art Foundation
–>
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
–>
Eli Broad Plans Another Art Space [New York Times]
–>
Broad Decides to Build His Own Museum [New York Times]
–>
Billionaire Broad Proposes Beverly Hills Art Museum [Bloomberg]
–>
Eli Broad’s Museum to Keep Art Out of `Basement’ [Bloomberg]
–>
Eli Broad’s art collection needs a home, so he’ll build it [LA Times]
–>
MOCA faces serious financial problems [LA Times]
–>
Saving MOCA: Eli Broad offers $30 million to MOCA in Op-Ed [LA Times]
–>
Eli Broad to Build Museum in Los Angeles [ArtForum]

(more…)

“Concetto spaziale, La fine di Dio” by Lucio Fontana via Christie’s

Highest-valued sale Christie’s has yet to auction during Frieze Art week will be a Lucio Fontana egg-shaped canvas estimated at $21.8 million [Bloomberg]
LACMA announces $55 million gift directed toward new pavilion amongst other endeavors from POM Wonderful and Fiji water owners [ArtDaily]
Street artist Kaws, now at Emmanuel Perrotin in Miami (as covered by AO here), collaborates on shoes with Marc Jacobs [TheWorldsBestEver]
An interview with Catherine Opie, whose work can now be seen at the Guggenheim [Artforum]
Ukrainian (not Russian, as cited in linked article) steel oligarch Victor Pinchuk announces Director for his new Kiev museum and that he was in fact a major buyer at Hirst’s Sotheby’s auction [ArtInfo]

Maison Tropical via The New York Times

Jean Prouvé’s Maison Tropicale to Art Basel Miami [The Art Newspaper]
Met buys Delacroix in honor of retiring director Montebello [New York Times]
LACMA spends $12 million on more land [Los Angeles Times via ArtForum]
81 artists are selected for international Biennial in New Orleans [ArtForum]
Capital’s influence on Chinese contemporary art [GuardianUK via c-monster]
Rome’s growing contemporary art scene [New York Times]

Works by Ellsworth Kelly and Roy Lichtenstein at LACMA via The New York Times

Update: Eli Broad’s penchant for collecting in depth [The New York Sun]
Update: The Innovative Design and Architecture of the Broad Contemporary Art Museum in Los Angeles [The New York Times]
Update: Nicolai Ouroussoff’s Architectural Critique of LACMA [The New York Times]
Update: FT Review’s LACMA: “The world’s youngest great museum” [The Financial Times]
Update: Review of Poussin at the Metropolitan Museum of Art [The New York Sun]
Update: Poussin and Nature: Arcadian Visions [The New York Times]
Update: $42.5 million of benefit’s sale for The Red Auction event [The New York Sun]

Broad Contemporary Art Museum via LACMA

Eli Broad created a paradox at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art by donating a building and then loaning the artwork. The Broad Foundation gave $56 million for the construction of the Broad Contemporary Art Museum, on LACMA grounds.

Eli Broad’s Museum Opens With Jeff Glitter, Dark Andy: Review [Bloomberg]
To Have and Give Not [New York Times]
Broad Collections’ artists on view at BCAM [The Broad Art Foundation]
Transforming the LACMA [LACMA]

(more…)

Los Angeles County Museum Via Bloomberg

Review: Eli Broad gives $50mm, loans his foundation’s and personal collections to LACMA [Bloomberg]
Jeff Koons chats with Katy Siegel at 92nd Street Y Exhibition [Art Fag City]
Julian Schnabel claims he will “bring peace to Israel” in June [New York Mag]
Ad agency accuses Tracey Emin of plagiarizing Antony Gromley’s E.ON 2007 campaign [Art Fag City]
New Award for Top Swiss Contemporary Art, courtesy of Julius Bär Foundation [Swiss Info]
ARCO8, 27th Madrid International Contemporary Art Fair, opens today [Art Daily]

Tagged Murakami Billboard via Boing Boing

Murakami Billboard in Los Angeles tagged [Art Fag City] and subsequently kept by Murakami [Boing Boing]
Russian Art Prices continue to grow [FT]
London Auctions buoyed by Expressionists [NYSun]
Detailed Summary of LACMA and Eli Broad Controversy [NYT]
NYC Evening Museum Party Schedule [NYT]
Gagosian maintains Schnabel Oscar plans despite writers strike [NY Observer]
Proenza Schouler inspirated by Donald Judd on MARFA, Texas trip [Style]
Richter’s “Zwei Liebespaare” sells for £7.3M, exceeds expectations [Christies]
Art forced out of Britain by Tax Laws: 40% of work’s value [Times Online UK]
Auction houses are increasingly financiers versus exchange agents[Economist]

Bruce Nauman via Donald Young Gallery

Bruce Nauman to Represent the US at 2009 Venice Biennale [The New York Times]
Dwindling Confidence in the Contemporary Art Market [Bloomberg]
Feds Raid California Museums, including LACMA, for Smuggling Looted Antiquities [The New York Times]
Barry “Twist” McGee’s First Solo Show in UK Show [The World’s Best Ever]
Recession Drags Art Prices? [Bloomberg]
Katy Grannan’s Portraits in Two New York Galleries [NY Sun]
Update: Samsung Slush Fund Art Found [Yonhap News]
Sotheby’s and Christie’s February Impressionist and Modern art Sale Predicted to Total $200M [NY Sun]